The GAA has been urged to make the wearing of fully-protective headgear mandatory during all hurling matches after a study of eye injuries at two hospitals in the Republic found the game responsible for 308 eye injuries between 1994 and 2000.
The study, conducted at Waterford Regional Hospital and Cork University Hospital, looked at all eye injuries resulting directly from hurling. It found that five players had been permanently blinded by their injuries and a further 12 had permanent eye defects leading to reduced vision.
One of the six eye specialists involved in the study, Mr Stephen Beatty, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Waterford Regional Hospital, said yesterday that the figures did not include recent injuries. "In the last five weeks alone we have had three patients go irreversibly blind in one eye. As doctors, we cannot sit back and let this continue," he said.
He said blindness in one eye had profound long-term implications for players. They would have to pay higher insurance premiums and would be excluded from several occupations such as the Defence Forces, fire service and the Garda. "It also excludes them from any notion of a sporting career and has psychological and cosmetic implications, and the tragedy is these injuries are, of course, entirely preventable by wearing protective eye gear," he said.
"I think I can say with absolute certainly that if the GAA do not make protective eyewear compulsory for all players, young men will definitely go permanently and irreversibly and unnecessarily blind. It must be made compulsory for all players at all levels, at all times."
He stressed that wearing a helmet was not sufficient. Players had to ensure that their eyes were protected.
In a letter to the president of the GAA, Mr Seán Kelly, he suggested that the GAA follow the lead of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and change its rules in relation to the wearing of protective face masks to prevent these "entirely preventable and horrendous injuries".
He also said that an Australian hurling club had made protective eye gear compulsory for players. "It's astounding that Gaelic sports seem to be more advanced in Australia," he added.
The GAA said that Mr Beatty's concerns had been referred to its medical sub-committee for consideration. Spokesman Mr Ciarán O'Neill said that the sub-committee would make any recommendations it considered appropriate to management.
Mr O'Neill pointed out that two separate annual congresses of the GAA - in 1990 and 1995 - had declined motions urging that the wearing of helmets during hurling matches be made mandatory. However, congress strongly recommended the wearing of them at under-age level.
While every serious eye injury was one too many, it appeared that the chance of picking up a "legally-blinding eye injury" in the catchment area of the study over the period looked at was one in five million.
The South-Eastern Health Board, after being presented with the eye injury study, has also called on the GAA to look at making the wearing of helmets mandatory.